Some of you noticed and asked us about recent changes we made to Gmail for mobile and a few of our other mobile web apps. If you use the web browser to access Gmail, Latitude, Calendar, or Tasks on your Android-powered device or iPhone, you'll see that we freshened up the look of the buttons and toolbars.

We've recently installed software that will display our site in a modified, faster to load (and we hope improved) format for modern browsers like those used in iPhones, iPod Touches and Android phones, among others. About 2% of our site's visits are currently from iPhones and iPod Touches, and that's likely to increase.

The official word from AT&T is that iPhone MMS will arrive "late morning" Pacific time, or early afternoon Eastern time. You'll have to plug into a computer and hit up iTunes to get the update, but it's not clear exactly when MMS will turn on, so just have to keep refreshing until you get the go-ahead.

iPhone owners are much more likely to download apps and get involved with social networking than their BlackBerry-owning counterparts, Compete revealed today in a new study. About 72 percent of Apple smartphone users are likely to have downloaded at least 10 third-party apps, but 73 percent of BlackBerry users have picked up five apps or less. The researchers add that iPhone owners are more willing to buy their apps than BlackBerry owners.

The iPhone 3G S is coming on June 19 with a lot of new features that will definitely improve its users' smartphone experience and their lives in general. After the release at the Apple WWDC 2009, AT&T announced the upgrade prices and everybody was shocked. The carrier will rip-off anybody who wants an upgrade, and many have predicted that this year's launch will not be as successful as previous ones, however, the iPhone 3G S pre-orders are sold-out.

It appears as if USA Today is now in the iPhone rumor business, alleging that Verizon will be carrying the iPhone as soon as 2010. Unfortunately, neither evidence nor common sense support its claim that Verizon will be selling a CDMA-based iPhone next year, or ever.

It seems oddly appropriate to talk about security today. Between malware and identity theft, everyone has more to think about these days. Many services are adopting multi-factor authentication in order to better protect their users. This generally involves a little dongle attached to your keychain that reads out a new, random number after a short period of time.

Facebook Connect allows Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users to enable third party applications through its social networking platform. The new app has debuted today which expands normal services to be mobile and on the move.

One of the most anticipated games for the iPhone/iPod Touch has to be Konami's Metal Gear Solid Touch. Konami released a handful of screenshots and some scarce information on the game last week. Today the company announced in Japan that Metal Gear Solid Touch will be available in the App Store on March 19 (both in the US and Japan).

The iPhone 3G is only available in two colors: white and black. Right? Wrong. Apparently, Apple also made a pink iPhone 3G with the obvious intent of giving it to the ladies. If not, then some mischievous iPhone 3G factory worker must have felt like playing with spray paints one day. Or someone is playing a sick and girly joke on us.

I could go on and on today to you about how Apple is wrong for ignoring the low-end market and why they should be producing a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone that will be the iPhone nano, but what's the use? I don't see any, especially now that these beautiful cases of a purported, already-in-production, upcoming iPhone nano have been generously leaked. No, sir.

Google's iPhone competitor Android may be doing gangbusters in pre-order sales (1.5 million and counting), but that's not going to stop the search giant from making a few dollars from Apple's competing smart phone. Google today announced the launch of iPhone specific ad capabilities.